GL accounts can be created as intercompany accounts, which means that each transaction on the accounts is associated with an intercompany business relation. This lets you retain the balances of intercompany positions.

Intercompany business relations can be customers or suppliers, or other entities in the system. If you create GL transactions between different entities or domains, the system automatically creates postings to special cross-company control intercompany accounts to keep the inter-entity postings balances.

Accounting layers provide different ways of segregating transactions within a single GL account to satisfy reporting requirements. The posting of transactions is controlled by associating daybook types with one of the three system-defined accounting layers: official, management, and transient, or with additional user defined layers. Transient layers can be used for simulation and approval processes; management layers can be used for multi-GAAP valuation of balances, such as comparisons between IFRS and local GAAPs. For more information on accounting layers, see Accounting Layers.

All transaction posting lines are recorded in daybooks (journals) for ease of summarization. Daybooks control the posting of transactions because each daybook must be linked to an accounting layer. A wide range of daybook types supports different transactions.

Daybooks also provide a controlled mechanism for having several different transaction numbering sequences. The numbering system prevents fraud, since each daybook produces its own integral numbering sequence. Daybooks are grouped in sets, which are linked to customers and suppliers to determine which daybook to use for specific invoices. The number of daybooks required in a set is determined by whether you use correction transactions. See Defining Daybook Sets.